The Human Rights Campaign issued a new report that described how most Black patients who needed an mpox vaccine did not receive one from May 2022 to January 2023, according to an article summarizing the report published in The Hill. In the new report, investigators noted that despite accounting for about 33% of total mpox cases, only 10% of all patients who received the vaccine identified as Black—compared with 46.5% who identified as White. Additionally, Hispanic and Latino patients accounted for 25% of all mpox cases and made up 20% of those who had been vaccinated. Further results also uncovered that only 25% of those who received tecovirimat to treat the mpox infection were Black patients, compared with 33% who were White patients and 34% who were Latino patients. “This data details what we’ve known to be true for generations: effective care for the most marginalized in our community is continually too little, too late,” concluded Kelly Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign. Experts stressed that although the public health emergency declaration has ended for the mpox outbreak, those who are at risk should still get vaccinated.
May 25, 2023